My Idol and My Beloved Teacher

Biography of Habib Ali Zain al-`Abideen al-Jifri

Habib Ali al-Jifri captivates an audience like no other. His talks are enchanting, his smile infectious, and his speeches on love and spirituality can uplift even the stalest heart. His trips to Europe or America are widely anticipated and when he arrives, fans swarm him, wanting to kiss his hands, ask for a prayer or at the very least, greet him. All this can seem slightly strange when you realise that the vast majority of his admirers in the West have only understood his talks through a translator.

Habib Ali, 43, only speaks in classical Arabic. His sentences, carefully crafted in small and precise sound bites, sound almost rhythmical and poetic. They are then translated line-by-line into English by a Western-born scholar who is just as articulate as Habib Ali. In fact, the translation is often so good it adds another dimension to the speech, making it much more memorable to his English-speaking audience. But above all is the content of Habib Ali’s speeches; he speaks with compassion and kindness, with love and about love. Paradoxically, his speeches are both simple and profound.

Hadramaut, Yemen

BIRTH

Habib Ali Zain al-Abidin al-Jifri was born in the city of Jeddah in the Kingdom Saudi Arabia just before the dawn on Friday 20th Safar 1391 AH (16th April 1971) to parents who hail from the Hadramawt valley in Yemen. His ancestral roots return to the city of Tarim. Al-Jifri is a direct descendant of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, through his grandson Hussein.

Young's Habib

Habib Ali Al-Jifri with his son

LINEAGE

Muhammad Rasulullah s.a.w

Ali Zain al-Abidin son of Abdul-Rahman son of Ali son of Muhammad son of Alawi son of Ali son of Alawi son of Ali son of Ahmed son of Alawi son of Abdul-Rahman Mawlah al-Arsha son of Muhammad son of Abdullah al-Tarisi son of Alawi al-Khawas son of Abu Bakr al-Jifri son of Muhammad son of Ali son of Muhammad son of the Ahmed son of the al-Faqih al-Muqaddam Muhammad son of Ali son of Muhammad Sahab Murbat son of Ali Khali` Qassam son of Alawi son of Muhammad son of Alawi son of Ubaidullah son of the Ahmed al-Muhajir ila Allah (trans: the one who made an exodus to the Divine presence) son of Isa son of Muhammad al-Naqib son of Ali al-Uraidhi son of Jafar al-Sadiq son of Muhammad al-Baqir son of Ali Zain al-Abidin son of Hussein (the grandson of the Messenger of God blessings & peace be upon him) son of Ali son of Abu Taleb, may God ennoble his countenance, the husband of Fatimah al-Zahra daughter of the Messenger of God blessings & peace be upon him.

His noble mother is Marumah daughter of Hassan son of Alawi son of Hassan son of Alawi son of Ali al-Jifri.

EDUCATION BACKGROUND

He began taking knowledge from his early childhood from his first teacher, his mother’s great-aunt the scholar and knower of God Safiah daughter of Alawi son of Hassan al-Jifri, she had an immense influence on him and the direction he took in the pursuit of knowledge and spirituality.

As a continuation of the authentic methodology of receiving Sacred Knowledge, and wayfaring on the spiritual path, through an unbroken chain of masters, all the way back to the Messenger of God may God Bless him & his family and give them peace, a methodology the preservation and maintenance of which, the valley of Hadramaut and the city of Tarim are renowned, this work was continued in the intellectual Milieu of the Hejaz which became a meeting point for the Scholars of the School of Hadramaut when they were exiled from the South of Yemen during Communist Rule; he received his education in the Sacred Sciences and the Science of Spiritual Wayfaring at the hands of Scholars and Spiritual Educators , among them:

• The Scholar and Spiritual Educator Habib Abdul-Qadir Bin Ahmad al-Saqqaf in Jeddah. With whom he studied the Authentic Hadith Compilations of Bukhari and Muslim, as well as the Revival of the Religious Sciences of Imam Ghazali and other important texts. He continued studying directly under his teacher from the age of 10 until he was 21 years of age.

• The Scholar and Spiritual Educator Habib Ahmad Mashhur Bin Taha Al-Haddad the author of many famous books. Among the books he studied under this master was: ‘The Clarification of the Secret Knowledge known to those Brought Near to the Divine Presence’.

• The Scholar and Master Muhammad Bin Alawi al-Maliki al-Hasani, the Hadith Master of the Two Holy Sanctuaries. Under whom he studied Hadith Terminology, Legal Principles and the Biography of the Prophet.

Habib Ali with his Sheikh

• He enrolled in the College of Islamic Studies in Sana’a Yemen from 1412 AH/1991 AD, until 1414 AH/1993 AD. During this time he was given the opportunity to study directly under Habib Muhammad Bin Abdullah al-Hadaar who was in his last days, so he went to the Habib’s Centre of Learning in the City of Baeda in Yemen. It was during this phase that he began to move from theoretical studies to the work of calling to God, as he benefited greatly from the late Habib Muhammad Al-Hadaar’s methodology of living his knowledge, and making it impact his reality.

Habib Muhammad Al Hadaar, Sayyid Al Alwawi Al Maliki and Habib Umar

• He settled in Tarim in the Companionship of Habib Omar Bin Mohammed Bin Hafiz from 1993 to 2003.

Habib Ali with his teacher Habib Umar

CAREER

Al-Jifri is the founder of the Tabah Foundation in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is a member of the board of Dar al-Mustafa Islamic University in Tarim, Yemen.

He is a member of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Jordan, and is also affiliated with various other international Islamic organizations.

He has strong connections with many centers and academies involved with international dialogue in religions and civilizations, including the Center for Faith and Culture at Yale University in the United States. He is also a contributor to A Common Word Between Us and You, an Islamic-Christian dialogue. He received the annual award of the Eugen Biser Foundation in Germany for the year 2008 for his contribution to Islamic-Christian dialogue.

Al-Jifri has lectured across the world and continues to be invited by officials and communities alike to address audiences and provide consultation and advice on many of the key issues involving religion and Muslims today. Al-Jifri's work focuses on critical issues of concern and is often focused within the realms of spiritual development, interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue, modernity and religion, preventing extremism of all types, and ethics and morality.

More recently, Al-Jifri has been an extensive commentator on the intellectual and thought-based shifts taking place in the Arab region with particular focus on younger generations. Over the last three years he has had a successful television program, Amantu-billah, in which he engages in dialogue and discussion with a host of guests coming from different intellectual, political, philosophical and religious persuasions. His writings and contributions on the broad topic of Islam in the modern world have received critical acclaim and acquired wide readership.

ACHIEVEMENT

·  Founding the Tabah Foundation – an organization whose remit is “the renewal of contemporary Islamic discourse to fit the needs humanity” through its three divisions: Research, Projects, and Media.

Tabah Foundation has founded by Habib Ali Al Jifri

·  Producing a Media Package for a unique lecture entitled ‘So that the Religion Does not Become a Game’ which dealt with some of the crisis and tribulations of the contemporary world which are a direct result of people taking advantage of religions for their own limited ambitions, the lecture was both an analysis and a clarification.

·  Contributed to the formulation of the Open Letter to Pope Benedict XVI after his offensive lecture regarding Islam and the Prophet May God Bless him & Give him Peace, he was also one of 38 scholars who were signatories to the letter which was lofty and intellectual in its manner in the context of constructive dialogue.

·  Contributed in managing the historical project on “A Common Word” a document signed by 138 Muslims Scholars, scholars representing different sects and schools of thought as well as countries. This document was sent to Christian Leaders the world over, and received a huge and positive reaction from the Christian side.

·  Contributed to the formulation of the ‘Declaration by Muslim Religious Leaders’ issued by 42 scholars and Islamic Authorities of whom he was a member and which was in reply to the offensive Cartoons by a Danish Newspaper.

· Founding the ‘Noor Centre for the Preservation/Renovation, Documentation and Editing of Manuscripts’ in Tarim, Yemen.

AWARD AND RECOGNITION

In 2009, Al-Jifri was listed 34th in the world’s 500 most influential Muslims by Georgetown University’s The Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talaal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre of Jordan.

He was a recipient of the Eugen Biser award in 2008 for his contribution to the document A Common Word Between Us and You.

Eugen Biser Award